The Historical Context Of West African History - 1039 Words

For our final paper, we were to read Sundiate. This was my favorite book to read due to the fact that I have an interest in West African history. From reading this book we should know the historical context, who Songolon Kolonkan and Balla Fasseke are and what roles they play, what details show existence of long distance trade, what the universal religion is, and what we learned about West African history. The book really gave me a broad idea of what life would be like during that time. I can only imagine seeing thousands of traders coming into Mali with their camels and donkeys carrying what they had to trade. What is the historical contexts? Sundiate was born in the kingdom of Mali. He lived was born in 1217, and lived a short 38 years†¦show more content†¦Balla was there to help Sundiata whenever he got put into bad situations. The father of Sundiata ,Maghan Kon Fatta, also had a griot who went by the name of Gnankouman Doua (Sundiata, xvii). An interesting fact about gr iots is that their position moves down to their child. Balla basically was to teach and pass on the traditions of the Mali culture. Balla also played a major role in how Sundiata began to walk. Sundiata was tired of constantly having to crawl everywhere he went and had enough of everybody talking about him. Sundiata requested the Balla bring him an iron bar to assist in holding him up. It takes a lot of courage for someone to do that. Sogolon Kolonkan was the sister to Sundiata. She also protected and guided him. They have the same parents, so they are full blooded brother and sister. Sogolon wached over him. There were witches who were going to test Sundiata , but he ,unknowingly, had nothing to worry about. â€Å"Sogolon was very well versed in the art of witchcraft and watched over brother† (Sundiata, 26). Sogolon was not going to let anything happen that she did not think Sundiata couldn’t handle. What details shows existence of long distance trade? Mali sat right in the middle of the trade route that runs through West Africa. Trade was a booming in Mali. Traders traveled for hundreds of miles because of the variety of resources and items that were coming through. Due to that fact that the traders needed to carry many goods across far distance they